Selig wants to develop HGH test

Pettitte admits using hormone twice on DL

Two days after the release of the Mitchell report, Commissioner Bud Selig said he's ready to move forward -- to effective testing for human growth hormone in baseball.

"I'm concerned," Selig told WMVP-AM 1000 talk-show hosts Chet Coppock and Bruce Levine by telephone Saturday. "I'm frustrated by the lack of testing for [HGH]. We have a leading expert and the money.

" ... I hope we can develop a test as soon as possible. People have a right to be concerned. I'm very concerned. Steroid use, according to all the doctors and trainers, has dropped off dramatically [with testing]."

New York Yankees left-hander Andy Pettitte, who maintains he never has used steroids, admitted Saturday he had used HGH twice while on the disabled list in 2002 in an effort to heal faster. Baseball had yet to ban the substance.

Selig spent a majority of his 15-minute interview defending his accomplishments in regard to testing players for performance-enhancing drugs, dating back to collecting samples of minor-league players in 2001.

He was extremely supportive of the 409-page Mitchell report, which documented players' alleged use of performance-enhancing substances.

"I understand that people can be critical of it," Selig said. "But I never wanted anyone to say the commissioner or anyone in baseball was hiding something. I have nothing to hide."

Selig said MLB already had instituted a rule recommended in the Mitchell report that suggested players have no more than 24 hours' advance notice before being tested.

"We're going to tighten this program every conceivable way we can," Selig said. "Some of them we'll have to do at the [negotiating] table. Those, obviously, won't come as easily as those I can do unilaterally."

He added that he planned to meet with 10 major-league trainers Jan. 9 and praised their suggestions.

Sabean has been skewered over his alleged lack of institutional control over the Giants' clubhouse, which led to Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds' personal trainer, having full access that was detailed in the Mitchell report. Anderson was jailed for more than a year for refusing to testify about Bonds, and Bonds is under federal indictment for lying to a grand jury about his use of steroids.

"We are a fraternity of 30, and people really don't understand ... unless they sit in this chair they don't know the difficulty in navigating through the many minefields that confront you in the job," Williams told the San Francisco Chronicle in Saturday's editions. "When you're talking about some of the issues in regards to this, there are no clear-cut answers in terms of how to go about solutions."

Getting rid of unwanted intruders in major-league clubhouses is "a lot easier now because baseball proactively set in place some of the current security measures," Williams said.